City gearing up the welcome wagon

Wednesday

Feb 6, 2013 at 5:29 PM

Starting a new business in downtown Hendersonville can be tricky, but the city wants to help.

By Emily Weaver Times-News Staff Writer

By Emily Weaver Times-News Staff WriterStarting a new business in downtown Hendersonville can be tricky, but the city wants to help.From "welcome bears" to a business-warming how-to guide, Hendersonville’s Main Street Economic Restructuring subcommittee brainstormed ways to roll out the welcome mat for new businesses opening in the downtown district.Board members picked the brain of a local merchant who attended the meeting Wednesday morning inside city hall.“We need a welcome wagon for new merchants,” said Michele Sparks, who opened her ART MoB Studios and Marketplace at 124 Fourth Ave. East in August. “Once you sign a lease, it’s like, oh my goodness, now what do I do?”The first place Sparks went to was the city’s building inspections department. Her husband was a building inspector. It seemed like a natural starting place. The department led her to City Zoning Administrator Susan Frady.“If you come through the (city’s) zoning department, we can guide you through the things you need to do,” Frady told the board. “We need to get the word out so people know where to start.”Committee member Cindy Jones proposed that they put together a packet of information for start-ups on where to go, who to see and resources that are available to help.Frady said that for most business entrepreneurs, the first thought is to get a business license, but several start-ups can get lost or feel overwhelmed in the process of everything else they learn they have to do to open.After a business license, start-ups will have to obtain a building permit from Henderson County Inspections and zoning approval from the city, and must pass a fire inspection. Any mechanical, plumbing or electrical work requires county permits. Facade alterations require a certificate of appropriateness, and signs must comply with ordinances.“We’re glad to sit down with people and go through what needs to be done,” Frady said. “Just having that interaction with people and for them to know that they can come to us” would help.The board discussed getting the packets – once finalized – out to realtors, downtown property owners and the Chamber of Commerce for distribution to incoming businesses.Main Street Director Lew Holloway said he would look into how they could partner with the Chamber of Commerce to welcome new businesses downtown.“This is a marvelous process,” said Main Street Advisory Chair Tom Orr. “It’ll help everybody.”He asked the board about having a possible “welcome bear” that would sit outside a new business for a few weeks as a sign of greeting to let merchants know they are welcome, and let customers know the business is new. Sparks suggested that it would be helpful for her to have a list of proprietors and merchants operating downtown so she could get to know her neighbors.Historic Downtown Hendersonville, the city’s Main Street group, holds Interact Downtown events at random restaurants on the fourth Wednesday of every month. The after-business-hours social event affords merchants the opportunity to network and get to know what is going on in the district.Holloway proposed finding ways to highlight new businesses at the events.Building on an idea that came up at the N.C. Main Street Conference he attended last week, Holloway said they could also consider having a small business incentive program in the city. He suggested that the program could offer small marketing grants to entrepreneurs who go through small business training sessions at Blue Ridge Community College. Business planning services are free to members of the community.Reach Weaver at Emily.weaver@blueridgenow.com or 828-694-7867.